All items: Effect of EC law

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  (1) Duncombe and others (2) Fletcher v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families [2010] IRLR 331 CA (1 report relating to this case)

  • (1) Duncombe and others (2) Fletcher v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families

    Date:

    27 January 2010

    The Court of Appeal has held that an employee who was employed under a series of fixed-term contracts and whose contract was terminated could bring a claim of unfair dismissal despite the fact that he was employed to work outside Great Britain. Territorial limitations to unfair dismissal rights should be modified where necessary to enable a right emanating from European law to be enforced.

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  Adeneler and others v Ellinikos Organismos Galaktos [2006] IRLR 716 (1 report relating to this case)

  • Fixed-term employees: Successive fixed-term contracts and objective justification

    Date:

    1 December 2006

    In Adeneler and others v Ellinikos Organismos Galaktos [2006] IRLR 716 the European Court of Justice has held that the objective reasons justifying the use of successive fixed-term contracts must relate to the particular employment in question.

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  Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs v Thorn Baker Ltd and others [2007] EWCA Civ 626 CA (1 report relating to this case)

  • Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs v Thorn Baker Ltd and others

    Date:

    3 July 2007

    In Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs v Thorn Baker Ltd and others [2007] EWCA Civ 626 CA, the Court of Appeal has held that agency workers engaged on fixed-term contracts of less than three months are not entitled to statutory sick pay.

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  Duncombe & others v Department for Education and Skills EAT/0433/07 (1 report relating to this case)

  • Territorial jurisdiction: Employee working abroad could bring claim in respect of directly effective rights

    Date:

    28 July 2008

    In Duncombe & others v Department for Education and Skills EAT/0433/07, the EAT held that the territorial limits to employment tribunal jurisdiction do not preclude an employee based outside Great Britain pursuing a breach of contract claim that relies on provisions in the fixed-term employees Regulations. The Regulations implemented European legislation, giving directly effective rights that the domestic courts must seek to enforce.

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  Duncombe and others v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families [2011] IRLR 498 SC (2 reports relating to this case)

  The Supreme Court, the highest court in the UK, disagreed with all the lower courts on this issue. The employment tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal, and the Court of Appeal had all held that the use of successive fixed-term contracts was not objectively justified.

  • Tribunal jurisdiction: Teachers employed abroad by Government can bring unfair dismissal claims in Great Britain

    Date:

    8 November 2011

    In Duncombe and others v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families [2011] IRLR 498 SC, the Supreme Court held that the employment of teachers seconded to European Schools on successive fixed-term contracts was objectively justified. However, the teachers could bring unfair dismissal claims in Great Britain in respect of the non-renewal of those contracts, even though they worked wholly abroad.

  • Successive fixed-term contracts of nine years not converted into permanent contracts

    Date:

    4 April 2011

    The Supreme Court has held that it was objectively justified to employ teachers on successive fixed-term contracts amounting to nine years in total, and that these contracts were not converted into permanent contracts. 

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  Heimann and another v Kaiser GmbH [2013] IRLR 48 ECJ (1 report relating to this case)

  • Worker on zero hours contract placed on short-time working can have holiday pay reduced

    Date:

    13 November 2012

    The European Court of Justice has confirmed that the holiday pay of a worker on a zero hours contract placed on short-time working can be calculated on a pro rata basis. 

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  Impact v Minister for Agriculture and Food and others [2008] IRLR 552 ECJ (1 report relating to this case)

  • Case of the week: enforcing EU law against public sector employers

    Date:

    16 May 2008

    This week's case of the week, provided by Addleshaw Goddard, covers fixed-term employees.

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  Kücük v Land Nordrhein-Westfalen [2012] IRLR 697 ECJ (2 reports relating to this case)

  • Fixed-term employees: Successive fixed-term contracts may be justified to cover an employer's permanent or recurring need for replacement staff

    Date:

    14 August 2012

    In Kücük v Land Nordrhein-Westfalen [2012] IRLR 697 ECJ, the ECJ held that an employer's use of 13 successive fixed-term contracts over a period of 11 years was not inherently in breach of the Fixed-term Workers Directive, but that the issue of objective justification had to be assessed by the national court on the particular facts of the case.

  • ECJ: renewal of fixed-term employment contracts may be justified by replacement needs

    Date:

    6 February 2012

    The European Court of Justice has suggested that it may be possible for employers to justify engaging an individual for more than four years on a succession of fixed-term contracts as he or she moves around to cover work for different absent employees. 

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  University of Stirling v University and College Union [2012] IRLR 266 EAT (2 reports relating to this case)

  • Redundancy: Dismissals because of expiry of fixed-term contracts did not trigger collective redundancy consultation obligations

    Date:

    21 August 2012

    In University of Stirling v University and College Union [2012] IRLR 266 EAT, the EAT held that dismissals because of the expiry of fixed-term contracts were for a reason related to the employees concerned. Accordingly, they were not redundancy dismissals within the meaning of s.195 of TULR(C)A, and did not trigger the statutory duty on the employer to consult in respect of collective redundancies.

  • EAT holds dismissals on normal expiry of fixed-term contracts do not count for collective redundancy

    Date:

    23 February 2012

    The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, where a dismissal is because of the normal expiry of a fixed-term contract, the dismissal does not count for the purposes of collective redundancy consultation, because one of the reasons for dismissal will be "related to the individual concerned". 

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  University of Stirling v University and College Union [2014] IRLR 287 CS (1 report relating to this case)

  • Normal expiry of fixed-term contract does not count for collective redundancy consultation

    Date:

    23 January 2014

    The Court of Session has held that a dismissal that results from the expiry of a fixed-term contract does not automatically count towards the threshold for triggering collective redundancy consultation obligations.